Shnitzle

Here is Shnitzle at semester's end (with a surrogate professor enactment).
Disclaimer: You must read Overspray to fully understand this post.

Some Good News in the World

It is a bit hard on this Monday morning to find a bit of good news on the vast web news sources but having been to the famed Trevi Fountain in Rome and thrown the requisite coin over my left shoulder, I found this BBC piece interesting. In summary, coins thrown into Rome's Trevi Fountain by tourists are to be used to finance a free food project for the city's poor. The money collected, which amounts to $4,000 a day, will be used to provide basic food, through a special free super market, for the poor of Rome.

Mi Momma

Mi Momma came today, as did my sister and brother, and sister-in-law. We, all eight of us, had lunch. That would be Mom, Linda, Hank, Lynn, Jess, Aaron, Baird and myself. Ben came later on. What did we eat? Home made clam chowder, zucchini pie, and Jess made apple crisp which we devoured with ice cream. mmmm......

Sweetside Thanksgiving 2006

What a wonderful day. Warm house with fire (rain outside), delicious food prepared by many hands and many friends who joined the family. All combined to make it fabulous day.

Thanksgiving Prep

Today:
We're getting ready for Thanksgiving Day 2006. Our first holiday celebration at Sweetside; we're expecting 12 for dinner. WooHoo!
I've been playing with flowers, cooking and baking - along with some cleaning, of course. Baird's finishing up the range hood. I finished the slate back splash yesterday. Check it out!

Happy Birthday Bairdissimo

Today is Baird's day....

What A Weekend

The past few days have seemed like a big weekend. Shelley & Dieter arrived Weds eve and stayed until Fri AM. Baird and I worked on house stuff Saturday and Sunday getting the dishwasher and disposal hooked back up (yipee!) and getting more tile work done on the stove back splash. It should be done for Thanksgiving. Then, Sunday eve Shelley, Dieter returned and joined Jess, Ben, Aaron, Baird and me to celebrate Baird's BD (2 days early). We grilled steaks and had other yummy food, topped off with a very special gingerbread cake called Aunt Lizzy's Dark Cake. Now the gang's gone and it is time to nestle into that warm bed.

The Winter Watch

From The Farmers Almanac

November 2006
1st-3rd. Clearing, colder. 4th-7th. Unsettled. 8th-11th. Pleasant. 12th-15th. Major East Coast storm! Heavy showers, with a few thunderstorms. Gale-force winds Mid-Atlantic Coast. Snow possible New England. 16th-19th. Windy, cold. 20th-23rd. Unsettled, with some wet snow or rain. Bundle up and bring an umbrella if you’re attending the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. 24th-27th. Fair, then very unsettled, with squalls. 28th-30th. Clearing, colder.

December 2006
1st-3rd. Fair for New England. Showers for Mid-Atlantic States. 4th-7th. Turning colder. 8th-11th. Big storm moves to New England. North of the storm track, heavy snow, with 6 to 12" possible. South of the storm track, heavy rains. 12th-15th. Cold, with a few showers, flurries. 16th-19th. Unsettled in New England. Showers in Mid-Atlantic States, followed by clearing. 20th-23rd. Increasing clouds. 24th-27th. Stormy, then fair and colder. 28th-31st. Fair and cold, becoming milder.

Escape to Sanity?

In response to Shnitzle's blog, Overspray and my comment there. Mmmmm.....

sniffling & snuffling

that's me... thank goodness for a low key day.

Too Many Changes to Count

WOW! So many changes in the state and country this week. Deval Patrick won! Lots of us are going to be counting on him!

The Dems took control of the House and the Senate, Rumsfeld resigned and Gates will take over.

Hard to imagine what things will be like on Capitol Hill come February 07. I do hope that somehow they will be able to work put a productive and sane solution to the quagmire in iraq and will deal with iran and No Korea in more promising ways in the yea rot come. It did bother me today tho to hear that El Qaeda released a tape gloating and boasting that Rumsfeld has been chased out of Iraq. Our democracy and the logic behind changes here, the voice of the "people" etc is hard to grasp for people who have never known a system where changes can happen thru things like votes, I guess. It juts bugs me that the working of our system seem to empower them in disturbing ways.

Then & Now

I suppose once a few more things are wrapped up here at Sweetside I will have many house related posts of Then & Now... but today I am thinking about Merci the kitty. Back in late July I brought her home with me from Chattanooga. She had been abandoned at the home of Baird's sister and family, was living under their deck and being incessantly dive bombed by a mocking bird. She was was pretty helpless but was NOT to be taken in per order of their landlady. So, my niece Hannah and I got her into a tiny little kennel and she flew home with me :-)

She was absolutely adorable even as a lost kitty: very cuddly with huge green eyes outlined in yellow. I was sure one of a few of my cat loving friends would want her but for a variety of reasons none could take her, so she is (of course) now a part of our family. Back then I posted a picture of her on her first day here. Thought I would post a few now, 3 months later. She and the other cats (as well as out beagle) all get along well. As you can see, she has about doubled in size. She was pretty well starving when she arrived here. Though used to scavenging, she adjusted very well to "Dave's All natural cat food, it's simply the best." Yes, she eats well. She actually looks like she is the offspring of Arthur and Surely (our Maine Coons). She has the big, big Maine Coon ears with the long hairs sticking out of them, long whiskers, outlined eyes and the people oriented chatty personality. She looks a lot like Surely, as you'll see in the pictures, but has a bit more of Arthur's gray, than Surely's red and Art's green eyes (Surely's are golden).
Here are a variety of shots of them:

Merci and Surely. Isn't it amazing how much they look alike?















Arthur's cute face :-)















Baby Merci, July 2006















and now, Merci stretched across the same chair, November 2006

Roof, Cats and Old Friends

That about sums up today. It started with Ben and Brett working some more on the roof while Baird and I loaded refuse from a few different house projects into his van for 3 dump runs.

Later, as the sun poured through the living-room bay window, the cats sunbathed and had a friendly sibling spat over who was going to get the biggest sunny spot. King Arthur won, over the young upstart, Merci while Surely looked on, too cool for such silliness.

Mid-afternoon, Baird and I headed over to Stephentown, NY to visit my childhood friend Nancy and her husband Tim at their get-away cabin in the woods. Back home at 10:30...ahhhh...what a good day it was. Now for a warm bed........

Arrival of the Hood

It's here and is in process of being installed -- our Sirius professional stainless steel range hood, as required by the inspector for our awesome Craig's List deal professional grade 5 burner Miele gas range. That's one "interesting" thing about some of the great deals on Craig's List... something like the required hood costs 2X the item you originally got the deal on. Oh well... I love it... it's superbly awesome.

Anyway, Ben and Brett have been working on installing it and will complete their part of the install tomorrow. Once they are done I will install slate on the cement board/walls, under and around hood like the rest of the back splash and counters. Yipee!!
Only the built-in refrigerator installation is left to go on the kitchen project.